Teacher charged with sexual exploitation of student at Hepburn School

A 34-year-old Saskatoon man is facing charges after the RCMP got a report of sexual offences against a teenaged student at Hepburn School.

Ryan Hutchinson was a teacher at the school at the time of the alleged incidents. The Rosthern RCMP received a complaint in June of last year and charged Hutchinson in mid-January of this year.

He’s facing two counts of sexual exploitation of a young person.

According to the Criminal Code, that charge can be filed against an individual “who is in a position of trust or authority towards a young person” or an individual “with whom the young person is in a relationship of dependency or who is in a relationship with a young person that is exploitative of the young person.”

The Criminal Code says the individual can be charged if he or she “for a sexual purpose, touches, directly or indirectly, with a part of the body or with an object, any part of the body of the young person; or for a sexual purpose, invites, counsels or incites a young person to touch, directly or indirectly, with a part of the body or with an object, the body of any person, including the body of the person who so invites, counsels or incites and the body of the young person.”

Hutchinson was to appear in court in Rosthern on Wednesday.

Hepburn is about 45 kilometres north of Saskatoon.